


dust & glass

by escapismandsharpobjects



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Explosions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 14:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30040278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects
Summary: Suddenly he’s being thrown backwards, or pushed, really, by the force of an explosion from just behind the door. He feels himself get tossed through the air, feels shrapnel dig into his skin, feels the intense heat of the blast, tastes smoke and dust, smells something burning and underneath that, something that smells like gunpowder.
Relationships: Nick Burkhardt & Hank Griffin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	dust & glass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [do_androids_dream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/do_androids_dream/gifts).



> hi!!! this fic is for do_androids_dream who requested that i write an explosion ft. a character of my choice. i went w nick :) hope you enjoy!!!!!

“Hey, wait for me!” Hank calls, as Nick pulls open the door into one of the abandoned offices. Nick steps back a second, looking to where his partner is hurrying around a corner, and waves him along.

“Come on, Hank,” he shouts. “Let’s get moving!”

“Hey, come on, man!” Hank yells back, indignant. Nick grins at him and pulls the door open wider. 

_ Click.  _

_ What was that? _ Nick wonders, looking around. It hadn’t sounded like a gun, but…

Suddenly he’s being thrown backwards, or pushed, really, by the force of an explosion from just behind the door. He feels himself get tossed through the air, feels shrapnel dig into his skin, feels the intense heat of the blast, tastes smoke and dust, smells something burning and underneath that, something that smells like gunpowder. 

For a second afterwards, he simply lies on the ground, stunned, unable to do anything beyond breathe raggedly. Alarms are going off in his head, screaming  _ danger,  _ but his body hurts too much to do anything in reaction. 

He tries to think, and comes up empty. Then he hears someone call his name, and his brain finally starts working again. It’s Hank.

Nick struggles to his feet, ears ringing and eyes blurring from the dust. He’s  _ insanely  _ dizzy and barely strong enough to stand on his own, let alone move. Nonetheless, he tries to take a step, looking around at his blurry surroundings for any sign of his partner.

Hank grabs onto him before he can fall over as he attempts to start walking. His grip is strong but gentle against the cuts and bruises that litter Nick’s arms, and Nick thinks for a second about simply relaxing into Hank’s embrace, giving his battered body a rest, but he can’t let himself do that. 

He pulls away instead, stubbornly refusing the help. “‘M fine,” he says, and even to his own ears it sounds like the least convincing thing in the world. 

“You sure about that?”

He nods very slightly, making his head spin anyway. 

“So if I just walk on out of here, you’ll follow behind me? No problem?”

“Yeah,” Nick says this time, not feeling like making himself dizzy again by nodding. 

“Okay,” Hank agrees, and he turns to walk away. He gets all of ten steps before he’s turning back around. 

“Okay, Nick,  _ clearly  _ you’re not okay. I was giving you the chance to tell me that, but if you’re gonna be stubborn about it then I’m gonna be stubborn about making sure you’re  _ actually  _ fine.”

As he says this, Hank walks closer to Nick, until he’s standing directly in front of him. Nick wonders what he’s seeing as Hank looks him up and down. Nothing good, surely. He’s bleeding from somewhere, he’s pretty sure. From multiple places, really, courtesy of all the shrapnel, but he can feel a spot on his torso that’s wetter than anywhere else. 

The more he thinks about that particular injury, the more he can feel it, stabbing and sharp and uncomfortably warm. He thinks the blood loss might be getting to him a bit, as he feels his legs momentarily give out beneath him. He makes a quickly aborted attempt to sit down, and is about to collapse when he feels Hank’s arms wrap around his shoulders and guide him to the floor. 

“What was that about being fine?” he asks, and Nick feels him gently touching the area around the wound in his torso, closing his own eyes so he doesn’t have to see it. 

Nick shrugs halfheartedly, regretting the action when it causes an uncomfortable pull throughout his entire upper body. “‘S not that bad,” he mutters. They both know full well he’s had worse. 

“You were caught in a damn explosion, Nick. Of  _ course  _ it’s that bad.” Hank’s familiar tone sounds equal parts concerned and exasperated. “I’m calling 911.”

“Hank…”

“Don’t you try and stop me. I know you’re not looking at it, and that’s probably a good idea, but you’ve got a big piece of glass sticking out of you, and I know you can  _ feel  _ it. You’re going to the hospital.”

A big piece of glass...Nick assumes that’s the thing causing the bulk of his bleeding. He kind of wants to look to make sure, but at the moment his closed eyes are holding back some of the dizziness and he really doesn’t want it coming back, so he decides to believe what Hank and his own other senses are telling him. There’s a large piece of glass in him. Probably some smaller ones too, he figures, given the general nature of explosions. Maybe there’s some metal mixed in there as well. He doesn’t need to see it. Doesn’t really  _ want  _ to, either.

“Don’t go falling asleep on me,” Hank warns, and he taps Nick’s cheek. 

“Not falling asleep,” Nick assures him. “Just not lookin’.”

“Yeah, that’s...probably a good idea,” Hank agrees, which definitely doesn’t make Nick feel any better. “Ambulance is ten minutes out,” he adds, and Nick finds himself momentarily surprised - when had Hank called 911? Had he been too out of it to notice? That thought scares him more than he’d like to admit. If he can’t count on his own senses, his own powers of detection, when he’s been mildly hurt, what kind of grimm is he? What kind of cop?

“Hey, hey, breathe, man. You’re gonna be okay,” Hank says, drawing Nick’s attention away from his momentary panic.

_ Is he _ going to be okay, though? A part of Nick wants to ask this of Hank, but a larger part of him tells him to stop. If Hank says he’s going to be okay, he has absolutely  _ no reason _ to think otherwise. He tries to remind himself of that fact and attempts to take a deep breath to calm down, which catches in his throat and makes him cough in the dusty air. The sensation burns its way through his entire upper body, and when it finally dies down he’s left feeling fairly exhausted, tears dripping down his face from the exertion (and definitely  _ just  _ from the exertion. Not from pain or fear or anything else of that nature). 

“How much longer?” he asks, or rather wheezes, to Hank. He coughs again, tasting the dust in the back of his throat. 

“Seven minutes,” Hank says. “Do you wanna try and get out of here? Breathing in this dust isn’t doing either of us any favors.”

“You...good?” Nick asks, at the mention of the two of them, mentally kicking himself for not asking sooner. If something had happened to Hank...if he was ignoring it in favor of helping Nick…

“No, I’m fine,” Hank assures him. “A little dusty and sore, is all.  _ You’re  _ the one who needs worrying about.”

As much as he hates to agree, Hank has a point. While this isn’t the most severe bleed Nick has ever experienced, it’s definitely up there, and he can feel himself starting to go a bit lightheaded with the blood loss. Besides that, his lungs feel like they’re on fire and the hundreds of tiny cuts all over his body sting in the dusty air. He’d like  _ very much _ to get out of here. 

As though he’s read his mind, Hank says, “let’s go, yeah? I can see a path outside, and then at least you can breathe a little easier while we wait.”

Rather than reply, Nick simply acts, pushing his palms into the ground and trying to stand. Bits of glass and rock and metal and who knows what else dig into the already-cut skin and make his hands ache, and he barely gets to his knees before the dizziness returns and nearly sends him face-planting into the ground. 

Hank catches him before that happens, again, and hauls Nick to his feet, not saying a word as Nick wraps a shaking arm around him to keep his balance. He waits a moment for Nick to get situated, then says, “might be a good idea to open your eyes.”

Nick forces his eyes open, blinking rapidly in the dust, squinting to see around the spots caused by dizziness. He looks at Hank and follows his eyes to what, sure enough, appears to be a relatively easy path out of the wreckage.

“Think you can walk?” Hank asks, and Nick imagines he doesn’t have much of a choice, so he takes a step. 

Hank follows suit, his arm never leaving Nick’s shoulders. They stumble several times, and twice Nick nearly collapses, and by the time they get outside of the ruined building they’re both sweaty and exhausted and  _ sore. _ They sink down side-by-side onto a patch of unharmed grass, breathing hard. 

“Three minutes,” Hank says, and Nick thinks he’s never been so glad to hear an estimate of time in his whole life. He lets himself sink into Hank again, feeling Hank’s arm return to its position around his shoulders. Nick rests his head against the front of Hank’s shoulder and tries his best to breathe and stay awake as they wait for help to arrive.

**Author's Note:**

> okokokok i have So Much to talk about for yall....so as i mentioned at some point during febuwhump (i think?? pretty sure i did) i went up to the pnw (largely portland) recently and it was Amazing!!! i went to a lot of diff grimm filming locations (hmu on tumblr if u wanna see some pics!) and i also learned a lot about the city and garnered some info that i will def be inserting in future fics (if u want any of that info again please lmk i am considering making a lil post about it). anyway it is so so cool up there and i did a lot of fun stuff and saw so much and yeah it was literally the best time of my life even tho a lot was limited for Obvious Reasons lmao. but yeah thats enough on the Me News. anyway dw nick is completely ok i just like. didn't feel like writing another ambulance/hospital scene so i stopped it there lmao. hope you liked this fic :) love u!!! <3


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